Trust and Loyalty
by DnKS-giRLs
Summary: A Schneizel-Kanon fic. They had seen everything together and when Kanon had the opportunity to step back and remember, he would remember that certain summer day, a lovely lavender dress, and his prince’s smiling eyes as he looked at his face.


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**Title**: Trust and Loyalty

**Author**: DnKS – giRLs

**Rating**: PG

**Pairing**: Schneizel-Kanon

**Disclaimers**: Nope, not ours…

**Warning**: This is simply… a poor excuse for an attempt at romantic sap…

**Note**: Previously posted on slashy-lady(dot)livejournal(dot)com so sorry if you read this twice.

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Should he possess even a bit less of equanimity, Kanon knew he would have probably done something highly improper which might perhaps range from giving a scream to bolting out of the room in a rush. Yet his years of strict training of mannerism forbade it, moreover when he considered that in front of him was the man he had sworn to serve for all the years God willed to give him. In front of His Highness Prince Schneizel el Britannia, he, Earl Kanon Maldini, could do none but show proper respect, regardless of what circumstance he was in.

Regardless of the fact that he was at that moment wearing his late mother's flimsy lavender dress.

"Your Highness, Prince Schneizel," he said courtly as he debated whether he should give a curtsy or a bow. In the end, he opted to give his prince, his one and only lord, a very deep bow. His hands neither shake nor unsure. His expression neither agitated nor troubled. Though he knew in his heart he was shaking with fear, and his mind was troubled over what his Prince might say to him now after he found him in such an inappropriate situation.

Truly, he had not planned that. Nor did he predict that His Highness would seek him and thus found him in such undignified situation. Undignified indeed, for who would not get repulsed at finding their subordinate, their male subordinate, standing calmly in front of a great mirror wearing a lavender dress without any shame in them?

Kanon knew he had failed the Prince and he dreaded the thought of it more than the thought of any punishment he would get.

"Raise your face, Kanon," His Highness said to him and he realized he was still bowing so low as if he was afraid to meet those fierce eyes of his prince. Though maybe, he thought as he straightened up as best as he could in that dress, it was not so far from the truth.

"Could I be of some service for you, Sire?" he said courteously, no hint of tremble in his voice. Kanon knew he should face everything, even his own doom, in dignity. And Prince Schneizel deserved his respect to the very end.

"Indeed," Prince Schneizel said, and Kanon knew those eyes were scrutinizing him. Yet like a gentleman he was, His Highness Prince Schneizel did not insult him. He did not show his repulsion openly. He merely turned his face a bit to the side and politely, ever so politely, continued his sentence.

"I entreat your aid, dear Kanon, in my work," Prince Schneizel said to him. "Could I expect to see you in the meeting room after this?"

"It is my utmost honor to do so, Your Highness," he said in all honesty.

"I shall leave you so you might get yourself presentable," Prince Schneizel said again, no doubt implying about his dress. And for the first time ever since he saw his prince entering his room, Kanon felt his shame evident on his face. Fervently, he hoped that his face would not betray his inner turmoil. But even as he thought about it, he knew he was failing.

"I thank you kindly, Sire," he said quietly. He saw Prince Schneizel nodded, and without further ado, the prince in white stepped out from the room and away from him.

Kanon could almost not believe that he got away without reprimand, without any harsh punishment, without any words of disappointment coming from his prince. Rather, His Highness had given him yet another task, an honor that he could not believe that he could still enjoy. A very great honor indeed, that Prince Schneizel still allowed him to assist his duty. A very great honor, and he would never waste it.

With sure hands, he changed into his uniform. With sure steps, he walked to the room where his prince was waiting. With ready wit and careful precision, he assisted Prince Schneizel's works, all along waited for the time when his prince would bring up that certain incident and prepared himself for it. He knew he deserved punishment. He knew he deserved some talking. Kanon knew that and he was ready to take anything that Prince Schneizel wanted to throw at him.

Nevertheless, one hour into the time he was helping Prince Schneizel dealing with some legal documents and the only things his prince ever threw at him were some polite order regarding those documents he was dealing with. The incident some time previous seemed to be all forgotten, and as time progressed, Kanon had grown his apprehension. It was worse, oh so much worse indeed, to wait for a blow that never came. He so wanted Prince Schneizel to just accuse him openly and reprimand him properly, for the wait was by far worse than the actual punishment he could get.

It was well after two hours had passed that finally His Highness Prince Schneizel el Britannia put his pen down and gave the faintest of a sigh. A satisfied smile broke on that regal face as he seemed to inspect the fruit of his labor in front of him.

"I believe we are done for the moment, Kanon," Prince Schneizel said. "I thank you for your assistance."

"It was my utmost pleasure, Sire," he said as he carefully arranged those documents that Prince Schneizel had been working on. He could feel the prince's eyes following him as he arranged those documents into their corresponding archives carefully.

"May I be so bold with you for a moment, Kanon?" suddenly Prince Shneizel asked him and he found himself halting his hands for a mere half of a second before he resumed his duty of arranging those documents.

It seemed his waiting was finally going to end.

"There is no such thing I dare to dub as bold for you, Sire," he answered. With his work finished, he straightened his shoulder and turned his body to meet the searching face of Prince Schneizel. Keeping his posture in respectful stance, he smiled. "So please, Sire, do not hold yourself back."

Kanon had learned for so long how to read the situation. One needed to be able to do so if he were to succeed in the vile world where politics were at full play. And he knew, the moment Prince Schneizel opened his lips, what might hide behind those words that he had spoken. He knew what exactly his prince was about to demand from him. He knew exactly what thing his prince wished to speak to him.

And his intuition did not fail him. It was proven as true the moment Prince Schneizel continued his sentence.

"May I then inquire about that surprising scene I came across a few moments ago?" Prince Schneizel asked again, his gloved fingers entwined in front of him as a look of contemplation settled on his face. "I assure you, though, that I fully put the decision in your hands. Should you want to share the reason behind such act of you wearing such, pardon my words, outfit I never before imagined you to wear, I would be more than glad to hear. Yet should you want to keep it within yourself, please feel free to do so for I wish not to force you, dear Kanon."

His smile grew a bit melancholic at those considerate words his prince had just given him. Truly, His Highness Prince Schneizel el Britannia was a generous man.

"Your Highness," he said carefully. "There is nothing I wish to keep from you. And if you are so kind as to hear this meager story I wish to tell you, I will be most obliged."

"Then please do sit down and share your story with me, Earl Kanon Maldini," Prince Schneizel said with such a gentle smile that Kanon could not help to do anything but comply. Gracefully he sat down though he still make note of his position and seated himself in the proper distance from where the prince was sitting. Folding his hands on his lap, he then proceeded with his story.

"Allow me to enliven your memory about the dearly departed lady from the Maldini Earldom, my late mother, Lady Eliette," he said, eyes softening at the thought of his beautiful mother. "Today is supposedly her fiftieth birthday."

A flicker of surprise seemed to pass across Prince Schneizel's eyes. Yet it was brief and it disappeared before he could actually see it clearly. Rather than seeing, he knew it was more appropriate if he said he sensed the surprise there. Year of serving under Prince Schneizel had made him so tuned in with his emotion that Kanon could say that his prince was briefly surprised a few seconds ago.

"My deepest grief," the prince said to him. "And I have to beg for your forgiveness, Kanon, that I overlooked such important information for this long. Truly, before you revealed it, I have no notion what important day is today for you."

"Please do not trouble yourself over such trivial matter, Sire," he said. "It was my own judgment to conceal such information from you since I had no courage to burden you with such trifling thing. Even my entire household seems not to bother much with my late mother's birthday. The day of birth shall be celebrated during one's time of living, nevertheless, and once ashes turn to ashes and dust turn to dust, a mere thing like the day of birth loses its significance."

Prince Schneizel eyed him for a moment. "Yet for you, it is not so."

"It is not so and God forbids it to be so," he answered. "Every year I shall celebrate and every year I shall remember."

He drew a breath to calm his suddenly frantic heartbeat before he managed to find enough control to continue.

"It was my late mother's favorite dress," he explained. "People always mentioned how I resembled her. My dear father even mentioned that should I wear my hair long, he would surely not have a hard time mistaking me for my mother. When I wore her dress and posed in front of the mirror, it was as if I tried to defy her death. It was as if I tried to let the world see this beauty robbed from this earthly realm. It was as if I wanted to imprint this beautiful image, never let the dark shadow of death take her away completely from this world.

"Your Highness. I know it was improper of me to do such thing. Even my family finds my action repulsive and I can only wonder how great your repulsion toward me might be. Yet Your Highness, Prince Schneizel, please allow me to beg for your forgiveness. Should you get disgusted, then shall be it. Should you punish me, I know I deserve it. But please do let me to serve you still for I do not know if I could live up my life should you deny me this blessing. Your Highness, I am truly sorry."

That was the best explanation he could offer. As for the rest, he knew he had no power over. To his prince's hands he entrusted his fate. And Kanon was every bit honest when he said he deserved his punishment. The only thing he wished for was that he might be allowed to continue serving His Highness after he took his punishment. That was all he desired.

"Kanon," Prince Schneizel addressed him. "I do have something I wish to say to you regarding this certain matter."

He straightened himself. "Yes, Your Highness."

The smile thrown to his direction was so very gentle when the prince said, "That dress looked good on you."

Of all things that Kanon might expect to hear coming from Prince Schneizel's lips, surely that was the last thing in his mind. Or maybe to be more precise it should be said that he had never expected such proclamation to be directed to him. Considering that notion, it was perfectly reasonable that for a moment he failed to give any response to the statement.

"Your Highness," he managed to breathe out those words at last. "I… I am sorry, Sire, I do not know… what to take of…"

His last word came out as mere whisper from his lips and afterward he fell silent. His mind was trying so hard to process the words of compliment—oh, dared he thinking it was a compliment—that his prince had given him. So lost was he in his thinking that Kanon failed to realize that Prince Schneizel had raised from his seat and approached him. It was the feeling of gentle hand lightly resting on his shoulder that woke him up from his reverie and in utter fear he realized that his prince was standing in front of him, wearing such amiable smile as that aristocratic hand gripped his shoulder tenderly.

Knowing it was impolite to remain seated in front of his standing lord, Kanon made a move to stand up. Yet the hand on his shoulder wordlessly halted his step and he could hear the silent command as he looked into his prince's eyes.

Stay.

"My dear Kanon," Prince Schneizel said in a light tone of voice. "If this is how you would take every compliment I might give you, I'm afraid I would not indulge myself in such act frequently in the future."

He lowered his face, "Pardon this imperceptive soul, Your Highness, for he failed to understand your compliment."

"And why did he fail to understand such compliment?" Prince Schneizel asked.

"Because he felt he had no right to get such compliment from Your Highness," he answered as he looked up. "Sire, are you not repulsed by my act?"

The hand rose and Kanon could feel those silk encased fingers caressing his cheek. So gently Prince Schneizel ran his fingers across his cheek as if he was a fragile thing, a fluttering image of a hot summer day, a dearly adored lover cherished in life.

"Why should I, dear Kanon?" he heard the prince said, and he was too enchanted by those fingers to actually offer up any answer to that. "You are my aide, dear Kanon, and I know I shall have no one better than you to assist me. This shall change nothing. Why should I get repulsed by a beautiful image I found? Why should I get repulsed by a gentle soul respecting his late mother's memory? Why should I get repulsed by someone who has gone through everything with me, someone whose loyalty I value so much, if not the most? Tell me, should I get repulsed by all those?"

Those words touched his heart in a way that no other word could do. That expression on Prince Schneizel's face invoked an intense feeling within him that no other sight could do. And Kanon knew it was his most fortunate thing to be able to serve that magnificent person standing before him.

"I have no right to lecture you on what you should and should not do, Sire," he said.

"So very true, that statement of yours," Prince Schneizel replied and retracted his hand. "I have decided that I am not repulsed by your action. I have no intention to punish you. And I will never let you to leave my side. What response will you give to these words of mine, dear Kanon?"

Moving from his seat, Earl Kanon Maldini dropped to his knee in front of the prince he had sworn to serve. The response he gave had been ingratiated into his brain, his body, his very soul that when the words flew from his lips, there was nothing but honesty behind it.

"I accept your words, Sire," he said before he decided to be bold enough and added. "And I thank you for it."

"Remember this Kanon," Prince Schneizel said to him. "I put my utmost trust in you so I expect you to give me your utmost loyalty in return. Do you heed?"

Chancing to look up, he gave a smile to his prince and said, "Yes, Your Highness."

Their gaze locked for a moment before the prince reached his hand down to tilt his face up even further. A mere fleeting moment was given its due consideration before he felt His Highness Prince Schneizel el Britannia dropped a single kiss on his forehead. It was simply a kiss, without any pressure of lips, without any moving of a tongue. It was just a chaste kiss, a mere swipe of lips against the skin of his forehead yet that kiss, oh that certain kiss, meant so much to him.

"I am a selfish man, Kanon," he heard Prince Schneiel whispering to him; he felt his lips moving against his skin. "And I want you to be mine. I want your loyalty to lie on me alone. Anyone could betray me but not you, never you. Do you understand that?"

There was no hesitation when he answered, "I do, Your Highness. I promise you my loyalty and I pray so death might come upon me before I could have any thought of betraying you."

"Therefore, dearest Kanon," Prince Schneizel said. "I too shall promise you my trust. And let disaster fall upon me before I could even have any doubt in you."

The silent walls of that room were the sole witnesses of the exchange of vows between them, vows that would surpass any obstacle and predicament. Through the rest of his life, Kanon could say that he had kept his vow. Through the rest of his life, he too could say that Prince Schneizel too kept his vow. Never did he waver in his loyalty toward the prince, no matter what happened. Zero, the Rebellion, the Emperor, Geass, all of those could not stop his loyalty to His Highness Prince Schneizel, and with all the pride he was allowed to have, he could say that His Highness never doubted his loyalty, even when it was so easy of him to do so.

They had seen everything together. The destruction of an old world and the reconstruction of the new world. They had seen everything together and when Kanon had the opportunity to step back and remember, he would remember that certain summer day, a lovely lavender dress and his prince's smiling eyes as he looked at his face.

He never regretted his decision to commemorate his late mother's birthday that day, truly, he never regretted it.

- end –

(A/N: oh yes, we adore Schneizel and Kanon yet sadly so little fics ever portrayed them. As always, reviews will be much cherished. We hope you have a happy New Year and happy holidays.)


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